Before and After

I have another before and after to post. This is Miri's room (as if you couldn't guess!. She is very happy with it and so am I. I know it is a little girly but it fits her perfectly!

File this one under the "Shoot the Proofer" category...

Whoops indeed!

We all know the weather changes quickly here as evidenced with the freakish 8" snow on March 28 that was followed by 75-degree days within 48 hours.

But if Thursday's forecast is accurate, I believe we will be bending the laws of Physics with snow on an 85 degree day.

Now about the 4" of rain we've had all week...

R/S/M

Before and After

Here is the first in what I hope is a long series of "Before and Afters"

This is our "red room" it is separated from the living room by french doors and is in the front of the house. We are using it as a piano/reading room for now. I personal love it - my own little retreat away from everything!

Easter

We hosting our first big family dinner at the new house over Easter. All went well even though we are still without dining room chairs. Do you know how hard it is to match (or blend) chairs to an existing table? Not to mention even finding some that don't already come in a set??? GRRRRRR - That is a vent for another day.

Miri had loads of fun hunting for eggs before we went to church. I was hoping for an outdoor egg hunt but of course the weather did not cooporate. But the important part is she had fun and is really good at egg hunting. The kids hunted eggs after breakfast at church and she tied for first place in the "under 6" age group! She is highly motivated by the fact most eggs come with candy.

Despite not having any kind of nap all weekend M held up pretty good over the day - I am sure the constant sugar high might have had something to do with it. At one point I walked into the room and she was just spinning in circles over and over and over again. It was at that point when I did a sweep through the house and relocated the candy into non reachable territory. Next year I am instituting a no candy rule!!

A Bittersweet Good Bye.........

On March 31 we officially signed papers ending our ownership of the house on 27th Place. While we were very happy not to have to deal with the problems we discovered since moving out of the house we were a little sad to say good bye. We bought the 27th Place house about 6 weeks after we got married and lived there for 9 years. That house holds lots of memories for us, we introduced three of our kitties into our family at that house, our niece Cat lived with us some of the time there, we hosted numerous family dinners and parties and most importantly it is where we brought Miri home from the hospital. We LIVED there, we laughed, we cried, we loved and fought. And while we are looking forward to making many special memories in our new house, there is a need to at least mark such a monumental occasion.

Snow Day!

So after much debating and changing of the forecast we actually got to see some snow on Saturday. Nearly 7 inches worth!!! When Miri and I got up about 8:30 it was still raining no snow in site and truthfully I was not very happy with it. I was really hoping to wake up to a winter wonderland that morning. But like they always say if you don't like the weather here in Oklahoma give it a minute or two and it will change.


This was the scene by about 9:30 Saturday morning....



And this was a couple of hours later....



Late spring snow is generally some of the best snow we get around here not much ice or sleet in it making it perfect for snow balls and building snowmen. After it finally quit thundering (yes thundering!) we made our way out for some winter fun. This was also the first deep fluffy snow Miriam has had the change to experience and even though she was a little sad it didn't make good snow angels she had a blast!

Miriam catching snowflakes on her tongue



Snowball fight time!




Building a snowman. She named him frosty and was very disapointed the next morning when he started to melt.




Fun with Mommy and Daddy in the snow





By the same time Sunday afternoon nearly all of the snow had melted. I guess winter got its last hoorah in now time for spring!!!

Scratch That Last Post

We were doing so so good with the potty - until about an hour ago when M decided to poop the mother of all poops in her panties. This is like one step forward and two steps back - so very very frustrating, I can't even put it into words. And to make matters worse she laughed about it then flat out told Ryan that no she didn't poop in her pants - not once or twice but three different times. So we made her practice pottying, after she "enjoyed" a few minutes to think about it alone (a/k/a timeout) then we took away her newly acquired "my little pony baby nursery" (which was given as a reward for doing so well on the potty). Harsh? Yes very and believe me "mommy guilt" is setting in in full force, but come on she is 3! She needs to be potty trained and frankly I am quite sick of cleaning s&%* off her bottom. She is currently napping - maybe the accident happened because she was tired? I don't know. If it quits thundering we will go play in the snow after her nap. I will give her another pep talk and put her back in panties and hope for no more accidents.

She DID IT!!!!

It seems that FINALLY a certain little girl has made up her mind that it is time to use the potty. It has been a very long and frustrating year with lots of stops and starts along the way - but for the past two weeks Miri has been awesome about staying dry and better yet telling us when she has to go pee pee. However, poop has not been so easy. In fact I was starting to really dread training on the poop end. I figured if it took an off and on year of pee pee training that poop was going to take a while as well. For the past couple of weeks I have been waiting each day for her poop to then let her wear panties - but every now and then she would have the rare twice a day poop and I would be stuck cutting panties off of her in an attempt not to spread poop down her legs or onto what ever surface she was being changed on. I am sure you can imagine the frustration and grossness of all of this. So tonight we were getting some groceries at Wal-Mart and Miri starts crying about her tummy hurting. She hasn't pooped in two days so I told her that maybe going potty will make it feel better. We rush to the potty (I practically mowed down a little old man in my haste) as soon as I got her seated she started trying to poop and she did it - not once but twice then pee peed. I think the whole front of the store heard me cheering - I was really proud of her. It was like something clicked in her head that it was the time to be potty trained. This was how she started walking too - one day (at around 19 months) she just got up and crossed the room and never looked back. I think I have a perfectionist on my hands.

After her big poop we let her pick out a new toy. She had already picked out one for pee pee so she ended up with two new My Little Pony Babies tonight. I ended up buying two new packages of panties for her and NO PULL-UPS!! I am hoping we will have a pull-up free weekend and if she continues on this poop trend maybe just maybe we will be done with diapers!!!!!! Whooo Hooo!!!! I am very excited at that prospect!

Miriamism

Sorry I haven't posted in awhile - I will post a longer update soon - PROMISE.

But first I wanted to share a Miriamism with you all. Today while eating a snack Miri looks up on the hutch in the kitchen and notices the wine rack (for the first time):

"Mommy whats that pop up there?"
"That's not pop, it is wine for Mommy and Daddy, it is grown up drinks."
"oh so you will be cranky?"

At that moment I really wanted to say - "No so we won't be cranky" but I was laughing so hard I didn't. I instead tried to explain it was like really sour grape juice and it was called wine....

Gotta love the mind of a 3 year old!

Home......

We are finally starting to settle into our house and I am loving it, actually I think we are all loving it. To say that we have been going non stop since the first of the year is an understatement. We finally closed on the 12th and moved on the 19th. Miri was able to celebrate her 3rd birthday at her new house. She is so funny about this place. Every day when I pick her up after work she asks if we are going to our "new house" I reply: "yes, we are going home" she then proceeds to fuss about only wanting to go to her new house - guess it hasn't sunk in that the new house IS home.

We did a pretty low key birthday celebration for Miriam this year, Saturday we hung out at home, gave Miri her gift - a very cool new pink/purple tricycle. It was rather cold and windy on Saturday but we still played outside and M got to ride her bike. I am loving this trike - it has a long handle in the back so I can push/steer her while she is learning to peddle on her own. We also built our first fire in the fire place and spent a very relaxing Saturday night at home (the first in a *very* long time!)

On Sunday we had a very small party for Miri at our favorite pizza place.








It is so nice to just stop and breathe - have nothing really going on and just hang out. We are not fully unpacked and we still have some stuff at the other house but it feels so good to finally be here and some what settled in.


Today Miri and I took advantage of the warm weather and explored our new neighborhood a bit during a walk. Miri sang the whole time about going on a walk - she is very creative. I am really loving this part of her personality. Not loving the defiance so much that seems to be part of age 3! We also played out in the yard. M dug holes into "her" flower bed. This evening while dinner was cooking Ryan and I sat out on the porch and watch M play in the front flower bed and bird bath - she loves to get all messy. It is so peaceful and quiet - a huge change from mid-town, but we are quickly getting use to it!